Stats confirm wet summer

The numbers are in, and provide hard evidence of what local weather observers probably already suspected: It was a wet summer in Mount Airy.

Statistics from F.G. Doggett Water Plant — the city’s official weather-monitoring station — show that the soggy pattern began in June, when the local precipitation output more than doubled the average for that month, and was maintained through September.

Rainfall last month totaled 5.02 inches, which was above the September average locally of 3.90 inches, with measurable amounts noted on 14 of its 30 days.

As of Sept. 30, Mount Airy’s precipitation total for the year stood at 39.04 inches, which was 3.48 inches, or 9.8 percent, greater than what Mount Airy normally receives through the ninth month, 35.56 inches.

The largest amount recorded for a single day in September was .84 inches on Sept. 21.

August also brought above-average rainfall for this area, with a 5.03-inch total eclipsing the usual monthly average here of 4.29 inches and almost matching what was to come in September. Much of August’s output came from a one-day deluge of 2.47 inches on Aug. 11. Twelve of August’s 31 days had measurable rainfall.

Precipitation for June had totaled a whopping 8.35 inches (well above the 3.86-inch June average here), then in July the situation was a little more normal, although the 4.91 inches recorded at the water plant still exceeded the July average for Mount Airy of 4.76 inches.

The figures show that 23.31 inches, or nearly 60 percent, of the 39.04 inches of precipitation received so far this year occurred in a four-month period from June through September.

Other weather highlights

Trivia enthusiasts might be interested in other weather tidbits over the past two months, including:

• A monthly low temperature of 41 degrees for September being noted on both Sept. 14 and 15, tying the local record for Sept. 14 set in 1943 (city weather statistics have been kept since 1924).

• September’s high of 91 occurring on Sept. 4, leading to an average temperature of 68.4 degrees that month which approximated the 68.1 degrees that is the norm for Mount Airy.

• Monthly highs and lows in August of 94 (noted on Aug. 6) and 56 (Aug. 27), which combined to help result in an average temp for the month of 73.8 inches, notably cooler than the August average in Mount Airy of 78.3 degrees.